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Thursday, July 14, 2005

Edinburgh Ghost Hunting Experiments

My friend Angus (whom I first met at Edinburgh U as an undergraduate) sent me a link to a story on an Edinburgh ghost hunter's experiments with local haunting sites. He has done experiments in two Edinburgh sites that show that naive visitors respond differently to ghost-infested spots than they do in unhaunted sites of a similar nature.

He found 51% of people in vaults reputed to be haunted reported experiences, while only 35% did so in the other five. Dr Wiseman, who remains sceptical about the existence of ghosts, said he believed the background light from beyond the vaults' archways and the size of the vaults appeared to be a factor.

Okayyy.... His explanation for the even higher rate of ghost-detection in Mary King's Close is different and wackier; he's never heard of Occam's Razor, I guess.

About 70% of those visiting the "haunted" locations reported unusual phenomena.
In contrast, only 48% of people exploring the locations not reputed to be haunted had spooky experiences.
At the "most haunted" site, where a sinister figure in black has repeatedly been seen, more than 80% of the volunteers reported something strange happening.